The government has been warned that proposals in its
Draft Mental Health Bill could infringe the human rights of patients.

The joint House of Commons and House of Lords committee on Human Rights
say they have "serious reservations" about some aspects of the draft
measures which would in general improve safeguards on the human rights of
patients.

The draft plans have proved controversial - hundreds of protesters
marched to lobby their MPs last month, focusing on two proposals contained
in the draft bill:

mentally ill people living in the community should be forced to take
their medication

the detention of dangerous people with severe personality disorders
even if they have not committed a crime

The MPs and peers say the planned Code of Practice would not
"sufficiently safeguard the autonomy, dignity and physical and moral
integrity of patients in the decision making process".

Nazi Germany and USSR

Concern is also expressed that the definitions of a mental disorder and
medical treatment are too broad.

This could lead to "the compulsory detention... of people for the
protection of others when the people detained have never been charged with
any criminal office and nothing can be done to alleviate the mental
disorder from which they are suffering".

The committee says "this raises human rights issues, flowing mainly
from the breadth of circumstances in which a patient could be subjected to
compulsory, non consensual treatment".

The history of the 20th Century demonstrated that
psychiatry is capable of being abused

Committee report

They also raise worries that part of current laws which prevents
detention "by reason of promiscuity or other immoral conduct, sexual
deviancy or dependence on drugs or alcohol" has been omitted from the
bill.

The report explains: "The history of the 20th Century demonstrated that
psychiatry is capable of being abused.

"Nazi Germany and the USSR were probably not the only countries in
which socially or politically unacceptable behaviour was regarded as a
manifestation of a 'disorder of the mind'."

Ministers say the bill needs to be updated to protect the public.

But the campaigning group, the Mental Health Alliance (MHA), says the
proposals, which would apply in England and Wales, are fundamentally
flawed, and would turn doctors into jailers.

Public pressure

Tony Blair last month, acknowledged that argument, but added there was
public pressure to introduce tight rules for treating people with severe
mental disorders.

NOP research for the mental health charity Mind carried out in
September suggested more than one in three people would be deterred from
seeking help from their GP for depression if the proposed new laws were
passed.

Ministers have consulted the public and are currently examining the
responses before deciding whether the bill should be included in the
Queen's Speech this Wednesday.

Mr Blair told MPs last month that the Department of Health had received
2,000 submissions to date in response to its consultation.

The committee's report adds that they were pleased by the "positive and
constructive" response their concerns had received, adding they were
"confident that it will be reflected in the way that the planned
legislation is drafted for introduction to Parliament".

Experts' reaction

The Mental Health Alliance urged the government to act on the findings
of the report.

Alliance chair Paul Farmer said: "The Alliance has warned all along
that the Bill will not comply with the Human Rights Act.

"We welcome the committee's findings and share their concerns that the
draft Mental Health Bill could be a threat to human rights, especially the
widening of treatment criteria for mental illness.

"We urge the government to listen to the Committee's findings and the
Alliance's concerns, and produce mental health legislation fit for the
21st century."